First omicron death

I think many don't understand the difference between when to take a lateral flow test or a PCR.

I have just spoken to my neighbour on the phone, who has all the symptoms of Omicron. Because her lateral flow is negative, she believes she couldn't possibly have Covid and there is no need to take a PCR. It could just be just a heavy cold, but then again....
She wanted me to come and reboot her router, I respectfully declined and talked her through it on the phone.

Thank goodness you didn’t go to your neighbours house Marydoll as she could have Covid. I know you’re ECV so I think she was rude to ask you. She should get a PCR. My son had a bad cold at the beginning of the week. He tested using a lateral flow test which said negative, but he went to get a PCR as well. It was negative, so obviously was just a cold, but it’s best to check.

Maddyone my DIL and DS have just tested positive with Omicron, after taking a a PCR test. Their lateral flows were originally negative.
My 6 year old DGD is ECV and I'm worried sick. I can't even take her, due to my own status.
My neighbour knows I'm ECV, but hasn't a clue about Covid. Doesn't read a newspaper nor watch the news. I had to tell her yesterday where to obtain lateral flow tests.
She is my friend, but I could shake her, she is so lax regarding Covid precautions restrictions. The Omicron varient is rife here.

Alegrias1, why 'government propaganda and scaremongering'? Can you give any valid reasons why our government, and others, too, would do that? What advantages would they gain from it?

Surely it’s only scaremongering if the figures they give out are incorrect. If anything they are only incorrect in that the infection rate is probably much higher than the official figure.

MayBee70, I think it must be a lot higher, with asymptomatic infections - and the 'I don't want to know, so never do tests' brigade.

How can a nurse or doctor saying how frustrating it is to watch unvaccinated people becoming so ill (and putting them and others at risk) be "government "propaganda"? They are professionals expressing professional opinions. I cannot think that people of such integrity would be acting for the integrity-free-zone that is Boris Johnson.

Hetty58

Alegrias1, why 'government propaganda and scaremongering'? Can you give any valid reasons why our government, and others, too, would do that? What advantages would they gain from it?

Like the powers-that-be Hetty58, I want everybody to have their vaccines, and the quicker the better. I wear my mask and do everything that is asked of me. I have nothing but admiration for the work of people in the NHS during the last 2 years, and I'm amazed by the sacrifices and resilience of the medical people involved with the response to COVID.

However, I don't need to see people in hospitals, I don't need to see overworked medical staff to understand what we are living through. There is a school of thought that says that if people only knew what was going on in the ICU wards, they’d get their vaccines, and all this would be over. But the people who are refusing vaccines aren’t, generally, the ones watching the Six O’clock news and discovering now, 2 years in, that they’ve been wrong all along. So what’s the reason for the continual images of full wards and sad nurses? IMO, morbidness. A fascination with showing us death and disease. Not just showing us, but sensationalising it. Look how sad this nurse is. How awful.

Most of the news programs parrot the government announcements without any investigation into what they mean. On the STV news tonight it was announced that Omicron is the dominant variant in Scotland now. So, I ask? Why are you telling me that? What are the implications of that? The news programs seem to have lost all ability to actually analyse what is happening.

Now I’m going to sound a bit extreme – if the population are fearful they’re more likely to do what they’re told. They’re more likely to blame the “others” (anti vaxxers, those who vote against vaccine passports, people mixing etc) than to blame a government that is not doing their job well.

We do not know whether they died with omicron or of it. They may have already been in hospital being treated for something that they were dying of - cancer for example and that was the main cause of death, not the omicron that they tested positive for.

We know nothing but that one person has died. The deep signifcance is despite being highly infectious and having been around for some weeks, so far only one person has died with the disease.

It could be that the disease is mild, it could be because most people are vaccinated, it could be because the drug treatment they now use is so effective, but it could be the one swallow, that does not necessarily betoken summer, but often can.

They are professionals expressing professional opinions. I cannot think that people of such integrity would be acting for the integrity-free-zone that is Boris Johnson.

I don't for minute suggest that the medics are acting for Johnson or the government. I don't for a minute doubt the truth of what they are saying. But it is sensationalising their situation.

Sorry.

And...

I don't think its professional for professional medics to tell us that there is a segment of the population that they are frustrated with. I don't think its professional at all. How would it look if a doctor came on TV and told us that they were fed up looking after people who let themselves get fat? They might feel that, but I do not expect them to say it on national TV.

Someone called LBC this morning purporting to be the stepson of the deceased Omicron patient. He said that he was in his seventies and unjabbed.

This may well be true, but with out proper verification, we can only treat it as speculation.

Alegrias1

And...

I don't think its professional for professional medics to tell us that there is a segment of the population that they are frustrated with. I don't think its professional at all. How would it look if a doctor came on TV and told us that they were fed up looking after people who let themselves get fat? They might feel that, but I do not expect them to say it on national TV.

Absolutely this!
I was shocked to hear this on yesterdays news. Imagine being a relative with a loved one in intensive care and hearing on TV that the nursing & medical staff don't have sympathy for the desperately ill patients they are caring for. Very unprofessional.

Professional Medics are always saying how exasperated by people who are ill because they are overweight/smoke/drink etc etc.

Why should we get all up tight when they express the same frustration about the unvaccinated in hospital with COVID?

GrannyLaine

Alegrias1

And...

I don't think its professional for professional medics to tell us that there is a segment of the population that they are frustrated with. I don't think its professional at all. How would it look if a doctor came on TV and told us that they were fed up looking after people who let themselves get fat? They might feel that, but I do not expect them to say it on national TV.

Absolutely this!
I was shocked to hear this on yesterdays news. Imagine being a relative with a loved one in intensive care and hearing on TV that the nursing & medical staff don't have sympathy for the desperately ill patients they are caring for. Very unprofessional.

If I was one of their relatives, and they were very ill with Covid after refusing the vaccination, I would feel that sadly the nursing staff were quite justified in their views. No one is saying they aren’t being looked after to the best of their ability.

I get fed up seeing people begging others to get the vaccine after having nearly died, but they were too busy, didn’t know enough about it, hadn’t been told where to go ……

I agree, I work with families with a range of issues, I wouldnt dream of going on TV and discussing how frustrated I was about a particular behaviour. I would be sacked for one thing. It makes me really concerned.

The ‘secret surgeon’ wrote in the Guardian recently about his covid ward which was full of unvaccinated patients. He admitted that it made him/her cross that these people were taking beds from those with serious non-covid illnesses. My daughter who works in a hospital in South London, was having a bit of a moan to me the other day, where she blamed the unvaccinated for covid still being so prevalent.

I have one friend who is unvaccinated. She won’t give a reason just that it is her personal decision. At a small, well ventilated do the other evening, she appeared without a mask. I told her straight away to put her mask on! ‘Oh’, she said, ‘do we still have to wear them indoors?’

I would think it's fairly obvious that health staff, along with others who work with complex needs people, come across some who beggar belief.

Its bad form to be openly complaining though.

I'm sure medics feel frustrated about people doing things that endanger their health. I'm sure lots of them have a moan at their mums. I just don't expect them to go on national tv to tell us about it.

Although agreeing it is not professional, I can understand why medical staff, pushed to the brink would do this. So many people in hospital unnecessarily, who may have had a fighting chance if they had been vaccinated.

Also, I can understand people may not be able to have the vaccine for medical reasons, but you must still take responsibility for trying to keep as safe as you can.
My clinicians were reluctant to give me a second dose after a severe reaction to the first, but I insisted, despite a history of bad reactions. I am CEV and I want to do do everything possible to avoid being seriously ill.

A friend of mine died, after becoming infected with Covid at a pre op assessment and her carers became seriously ill, despite all the precautions they took.
Some people are stuck between a rock and a hard place. It is the most awful disease.

However, if you refuse vaccination because you are a conspiracy theorist and it is your right to refuse, will you refuse hospital intervention if you do catch Covid, because you made that choice? I doubt it.

I read he was just turned 70, wasn’t vaccinated, and seemed in good health. Apparently he never went out or met anyone a relative said. He did go to the Post Office, however, and must have fetched or had deliveries of groceries. One can only assume he contracted Covid on trips to the post office. To say he never went out or met anyone as some media reported was not true and feeds people’s fears.

I understood that no details have been released concerning any of those details?

I read it somewhere MissA but don’t ask me where. I look at several online news sites. One of them was bound to dig it out.

I don't know where I read about his details being held back, either.
It's all a jumble online!
The details may well be out now.